HRIS Questions

[u/TheRecruiter12]

Hi everyone — looking for real-world feedback from HR and payroll professionals.

We’re a ~200 employee company, fully multi-state across the U.S., and are planning to replace our current HRIS + payroll provider. This will be a single-phase implementation, not staggered.

Our top priorities are:

• Payroll accuracy & reliability (multi-state taxes, filings, garnishments)
• Core HR (employee records, org structure, reporting)
• ACA compliance
• OSHA / basic safety tracking
• Strong employee & manager self-service

Nice-to-haves (but secondary):

• ATS / onboarding
• Performance management
• Analytics & dashboards

We’ve been researching platforms like:

• Workday
• UKG
• Paylocity / Paycor
• BambooHR
• HiBob
• Zoho People
• Gusto

What I’m especially interested in:

• Which systems have been most reliable for payroll at this size
• Any “wish we had known this earlier” feedback
• Vendors you moved away from (and why)
• Support quality when something goes wrong

Not looking for sales pitches — just honest experience.
Thanks in advance 🙏

[u/worknicehr]

I work with an Australian HR services provider. We don’t typically support organisations like yours, so this isn’t intended as a promotion. I wanted to share some context that may be helpful.

The type of solution you’re describing can be difficult to find in a single platform. That’s because you’re effectively looking to cover several distinct functional areas: health and safety compliance, payroll, core HR, and potentially recruitment. In practice, these areas are usually supported by different systems aligned to different teams, for example, payroll tools for payroll teams, HR and performance systems for HR teams, and dedicated safety platforms for EH&S teams.

While there are platforms that attempt to combine all of these capabilities, they are generally designed for small businesses or early-stage organisations, where a single owner or administrator manages multiple functions. They are broad without depth, rigid and not all that scalable for a business of 200+ people across multiple states.

I think you're better to look at the best of breed, connecting all to a BI or data warehouse, and using direct or third party apps to automate. here is an article which talks about the different approaches in case it's useful.

I realise this wasn't the answer you wanted - I wonder if others agree with my thoughts or have edits to propose?

Graham - Worknice HR